the mafia
Unearthly powers
This delightfully good-humoured novel is the sort of genre scramble that doesn’t often work: there’s a bit of 1990s family…
Modern Italy’s heart of darkness
Valerio Varesi, the Turin-born crime writer, displays a typically Italian interest (I would say) in conspiracy theory. The Italian term…
Palermo: city of jasmine and dark secrets
The Arabs invaded Sicily in the ninth century, leaving behind mosques and pink-domed cupolas. In the Sicilian capital of Palermo,…
Good time girls: Italian women prefer sunglasses to babies, according to Nicholas Farrell
Like so many Britons who chased the dream and woke up in Italy I have contemplated writing a book about…
